She played up until her teens, left the game for a while, and then came back to it about eight years ago. She started playing again, and involved herself in raising funds for an artificial turf field in Squamish. For four years, she volunteered as a coach in the SYSA, coaching a boys’ under-nine team and a boys’ under-11 team. For the last two seasons, she has coached the boys’ senior high school team at Howe Sound Secondary.

Two years ago, the 41-year-old care aide with Vancouver Coastal Health volunteered to coach an under-16 boys’ team. The team’s coach had unexpectedly bowed out just as the season was getting underway.

Babuin stepped in and her team, the Squamish Red Devils, won the league. In her second season, she moved up an age bracket to an under-18 team, and despite the fact that her players were younger than most of the other players in the league, her team finished a respectable fourth out of 10.

She expected to be given another team to coach next year. The league’s technical director, Jonas Worth, who assesses all the league’s coaches, vouched for her abilities as a coach, and said so to the league’s executive committee.

“It was very specific,” Worth said. “I said for the past two years she had more than exceeded expectations. It was a no-brainer (that she be reinstated). I wasn’t expecting any change.”

There was another applicant for the coaching position, Worth said, but that applicant, a man, “didn’t really have a technical advantage over (Babuin) at all.” Babuin, he said, was more than proficient, and practised a modern style of coaching that was less confrontational and less dictatorial than coaches in the past.

“The boys (on the team) were happy and doing well,” he said.

On April 10, however, the executive committee met, and by a vote of 3-2, decided to dismiss Babuin and give the coaching position to the male applicant. Babuin was stunned, and asked Katrina Doherty, the league president, why the committee had voted not to reinstate her. In an email reply, Doherty refused to go into specifics but wrote, with careful vagueness:

“At the time, executive members were not required to share how they voted nor why. Individual members do share some of their thoughts or concerns but I am unable to say if that information was the full explanation/rationale behind their decision.”

Both Worth and Babuin, however, had suspicions as to what some of those “thoughts or concerns” were. It had to do with Babuin’s gender. Worth, who was at that vote, recalled:

“There was some previous discussion about gender as it related to ... coaching selection. And in this particular case — and I don’t know if it was said as explanation sort of right at the time of the vote or just after the vote — there was a comment made basically that at this age, boys should coach boys, girls should coach girls.”

Did he believe Babuin’s gender had something to do with the vote?

“I wouldn’t be on this phone call if I didn’t think so. I wish that person, that executive member, had kept their mouth shut and never said this, and then I could be limiting the conversation to, well, it was just, you know, friends voting for friends. But unfortunately that comment was made specific to that person’s vote.”

Worth refused to identify who made the remark on the grounds of confidentiality but he did say it was a member of the executive committee.

“First of all I don’t even know if the meeting was really confidential, but, you know, that’s a statement that’s not only immoral and unethical, it’s unconstitutional.”

Asked to comment on the executive committee’s vote and the comment made about gender during that meeting, Doherty replied in an email to me:

“Out of respect for the persons involved and in accordance with our legal obligations, the Club is unable to discuss matters concerning specific individuals. However, the Club is committed to the principles of openness and inclusiveness, and our decisions, including coaching decisions, are governed by what we feel is in the best interests of our members. We are fortunate to have many people who want to volunteer their time, energy and experience to our club. Each year, persons interested in volunteering as coaches are considered on the basis of several factors. Regrettably, but inevitably, the selection of one volunteer over another results in disappointment. Our sincere hope is that any person who is not selected to fill a preferred position will choose to work with us in another capacity to ensure the growth of soccer in our community.”

Did Babuin believe gender was the cause for her dismissal?

“Absolutely.”

And what does she want the executive committee to do?

“I want (Doherty) to acknowledge a mistake was made and I want her to fix the situation.”

Babuin may soon find out if that situation can be fixed, or the reasons behind her dismissal.

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